That Ask.com still has 1%-2% of US search traffic is astounding. It must be people using browsers with the default search engine set as Ask and not knowing any better.
I had my dad start using Ask Jeeves some time back in the 90's. Altavista had gone south and the online search space was very fluid, I thought that Ask was pretty decent, and Jeeves was kind of cool back then. I was surprised when visiting him a few months back to see the site come up as his home page, he said it always did what he wanted so he never changed.
It sounds like his dad never tried Google, thus there was nothing to "stick".
I think the lesson here is that while the search engine switching cost is $0, people are creatures of habit and may continue using something long past its expiration date if it is returning expected results.
What we see from this case is also why IE has such a huge market share. Less computer literate people will start using whatever some more experienced entity tells them to, and will keep using it until/unless they are forcibly switched to a new platform.
They say "Google isn't sticky" because they think that search engines aren't sticky (they just happen to be doing the analysis relative to Google); flatline's father "sticking" with Ask is a counterexample of a search engine being sticky.
GP post was using 'Google' to mean 'search', as in 'search isn't sticky'. But if someone has stuck with Ask for a decade out of habit -- that's a small example otherwise.
IAC still distributes the Ask.com toolbar which is installed on close to 100 million computers.
"The search business grew 20 percent, goosed primarily by a 55 percent increase in active toolbars to 97 million. IAC’s toolbar business is its secret distribution weapon"
As much as I am not a fan of Ask.com's UI (too much clutter and annoying ads) there is still quite a bit of valuable content that ranks fairly high in search results.
Unfortunately I can't point to anything I searched for recently to back this assertion up.
Comments
That Ask.com still has 1%-2% of US search traffic is astounding. It must be people using browsers with the default search engine set as Ask and not knowing any better.
I had my dad start using Ask Jeeves some time back in the 90's. Altavista had gone south and the online search space was very fluid, I thought that Ask was pretty decent, and Jeeves was kind of cool back then. I was surprised when visiting him a few months back to see the site come up as his home page, he said it always did what he wanted so he never changed.
They say Google isn't "sticky" but that's a good counter-example (albeit a small sample size).
How is that a counter-example?
It sounds like his dad never tried Google, thus there was nothing to "stick".
I think the lesson here is that while the search engine switching cost is $0, people are creatures of habit and may continue using something long past its expiration date if it is returning expected results.
What we see from this case is also why IE has such a huge market share. Less computer literate people will start using whatever some more experienced entity tells them to, and will keep using it until/unless they are forcibly switched to a new platform.
They say "Google isn't sticky" because they think that search engines aren't sticky (they just happen to be doing the analysis relative to Google); flatline's father "sticking" with Ask is a counterexample of a search engine being sticky.
GP post was using 'Google' to mean 'search', as in 'search isn't sticky'. But if someone has stuck with Ask for a decade out of habit -- that's a small example otherwise.
IAC still distributes the Ask.com toolbar which is installed on close to 100 million computers.
"The search business grew 20 percent, goosed primarily by a 55 percent increase in active toolbars to 97 million. IAC’s toolbar business is its secret distribution weapon"
http://techcrunch.com/2010/10/27/iac-third-quarter-25-percen...
They get a ton of distribution from software installers that ask if you want to install other stuff during the installation process.
I seem to recall they were paying software developers to bundle the Ask Toolbar long before Google started doing it.
As much as I am not a fan of Ask.com's UI (too much clutter and annoying ads) there is still quite a bit of valuable content that ranks fairly high in search results.
Unfortunately I can't point to anything I searched for recently to back this assertion up.